You may be out of luck. The first three-time dances I can find instantly are minuets and they're a little late.What's the tune? It might be possible to use it as a 6/8 jig.Unfortunately our historical dance music expert isn't going to be at practice tonight (it's not a historical dance group, he just knows many things)

SteveC wrote:You may be out of luck. The first three-time dances I can find instantly are minuets and they're a little late. What's the tune? It might be possible to use it as a 6/8 jig. Unfortunately our historical dance music expert isn't going to be at practice tonight (it's not a historical dance group, he just knows many things)

There's no tune, I am just looking for a 17th century dance that can be danced to a 3/4 time signature. I will have a look at 6/8 jigs and see if they are suitable, but I was looking for something very nice and sedate

SteveC wrote:I've emailed a friend about this and she suggested 'Jenny Pluck Pears' from Playford as being the only 3/4 tune (and it's only the second part) she knew.It's a nice dance and might be worth a look.

John Playford's English Dancing Master, which started in 1651 (tho some say 1650) and ran as a series until about 1720, is available in facsimile and modern type face many times on the www, complete with music.http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/playford_1651/Mr Playford was a compiler, editor and publisher, his books were sold to the travelling dancing masters of the day. Some of the dances are "event specials" for maybe a wedding or ball and others were just generally popular. Some have survived in practise many have not. Cecil Sharp in the early 20thc edited these works into more danceable dances, maybe with a different tune from the repertoire.

Between the Monarchs, there was a puritan period from when dancing instruction manuals certainly haven't survived -likely were not published or printed.

I've always been amazed by Playford's bravery at publishing the Dancing Master under the Commonwealth. I wonder whether he was trying to preserve dances before they were potentially lost. It must have been a very bleak time for dancers and musicians.

Yet all this should not have been an Incitement to me for Publication of this Worke (knowing these Times and the Nature of it do not agree,)But that there was a false and surrepticious Copy at the Printing Presse, which if it had been published, would have been a disparagement to the quality and the Professors thereof, and a hinderance to the Learner

but things weren't as bleak as people sometimes think. There may not have been much public dancing, but there seems to have been a fair amount in private. Cromwell himself enjoyed dancing and there was a ball for his daughter's wedding (or so I've been told--don't have the time to check).Many of the dances in the first edition of the (English) Dancing Master are for quite small numbers, suitable for the houses of comparatively modest sorts. I suspect that was his main market. People who had enjoyed going out for a dance but were now restricted to private occasions and therefore needed access to the music and at least a reminder of how the dances went.